In optical networks, optical control planes (or simply control planes as referred to herein) provide automatic allocation of network resources in an end-to-end manner. Exemplary control planes may include Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) as defined in G.8080/Y.1304, Architecture for the automatically switched optical network (ASON) (February 2005), the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference; Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) Architecture as defined in Request for Comments (RFC): 3945 (October 2004) and the like, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference; Optical Signaling and Routing Protocol (OSRP) from Ciena Corporation which is an optical signaling and routing protocol similar to PNNI (Private Network-to-Network Interface) and MPLS; or any other type control plane for controlling network elements at one or more layers, and establishing connections there between. As described herein, these control planes may be referred to as data control planes as they deal with routing signals at Layer 1, i.e. time division multiplexing (TDM) signals such as, for example, Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Optical Transport Network (OTN), Ethernet, and the like.
Conventionally, in the data control planes, a network path is considered to be available for a connection based on availability of nodes, links and sufficient bandwidth thereon. Examples of end-to-end signaled paths in control planes include sub-network connections (SNCs) in ASON or OSRP and label switched paths (LSPs) in GMPLS. All control planes use the available paths to route the services and program the underlying hardware. As services are added into photonic networks, i.e. the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) layer, photonic hardware, such as amplifiers, variable optical attenuators, etc., needs to be re-tuned or adjusted to accommodate the new services. That is, as the number of wavelengths on a link changes, the hardware requires re-tuning for the new power levels. To support wavelength changes, the photonic layer can include photonic control which, similar to the data control plane, can be referred to as a control plane or control loop which operates on the photonic hardware to optimize power settings and the like. Due to limitations of the photonic hardware, launched power, and modem type, a Layer 0 network (WDM) may or may not be able to handle the new service request at the data layer from the data control plane and may impact the existing services on the network.
Photonic control and data control planes conventionally are separate or loosely connected. By separate, these components have no interaction. For example, the data control plane simply performs data path computation based on available timeslots and/or wavelengths without regard to photonic layer setup. By loosely connected, the data control plane can perform data path computation with knowledge of wavelength count, loss, non-linear effects, etc. from a static perspective, i.e. the data control plane does a calculation for the photonic layer based on known variables. However, there is no real-time coordination conventionally. For example, the data control plane can, based on its knowledge of links and nodes, make a decision to route a service which from the perspective the photonic hardware may not be able to handle the service requests. An example of this can include where the photonic control is currently re-tuning a link and the photonic control cannot add or remove a wavelength until this process is complete. Thus, this link may look available in real-time to the data control plane, but is currently unavailable due to concurrent photonic control operation. Thus, there is a need for coordination systems and methods between a data control plane and photonic control.